There is presently a global effort to understand one-dimensional systems such as semiconductor quantum wires and carbon nanotubes. Such one-dimensional systems find a wide variety of applications in, for example, integrated circuits, and chemical and biological sensors. The electronics industry is currently developing semiconductor nanowire-based devices to possibly replace or complement complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies. The nano-scale wires have a large surface area, and thus can be advantageously applied to sensing, e.g., of biological and other molecules.
While semiconductor wire-based devices and systems are being developed, it has been difficult to make electrical contacts to them thus hindering their uses. Conventional contacts for nanowires involve evaporating metal directly onto the wires, a process very difficult to control and potentially damaging to the wires. Often the resulting contacts are not low-resistance and the resistance of the contact varies from sample to sample.